The journalist and author Lauren McKeon discusses her new book Women of the Pandemic: Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19 (McClelland & Stewart, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Women of the Pandemic: Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19 by Lauren McKeon (McClelland & Stewart, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Women of the Pandemic

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Lauren McKeon joins me again. She has just written a new book, Women of the Pandemic: Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19. It’s a great chronicle of the early days of the pandemic, and not just a look back, but a necessary view onto the roles that women have played in the year 2020 and beyond. We see the women who lead the public health authorities in Canada, as well as the nurses, doctors, personal support workers, cashiers, long-haulers, cooks, and many others. We see in their work, how it also doesn’t stop when their work hours end. There’s overtime, as well as the work outside of work, whether it’s caring for children or parents, or both, not to mention encountering hate, racism, as well as being grossly underpaid. These portraits of the women that Lauren interview provide marvelous insight into the work that is important, as well as undervalued. Will our idea of what a front line worker is change as a result of the last eighteen or more months? Will the token gestures of ‘hero pay’ or 7pm cheers result in lasting change? These are questions that are asked in the book, as well as considered while reading the book. Women who have been impacted by the pandemic have been overrepresented negatively. That effect is something that’s looked at in the book. It’s necessary we not only honour the women here, but also look at the lasting change that ought to result, like seeing women in leadership roles, as well as seeing the definition of leadership change. Lauren McKeon is deputy editor of Reader’s Digest Canada, and the author of No More Nice Girls, and F-Bomb, which she was first on the program with back in 2017. This new book is published by McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Lauren McKeon; Ms. McKeon, good morning.

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